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Frequently Asked Questions About Exercise on Total Gym®

Even people who have exercised on Total Gym for a long time have questions about the principles behind incline resistance training. Please review these frequently asked questions. If you have a question that remains unanswered, contact us at info@totalgym.com.

  1. What is functional exercise?
  2. What is a major difference between functional exercise and weight training on single station machines?
  3. Why are calibrated levels of resistance important?
  4. What happens when I change resistance levels?
  5. How is the Total Gym resistance mechanism different from a spring driven mechanism?
  6. How does Total Gym allow for exercise specificity?
  7. What does it mean to train the way you want to gain?
  8. What difference does a dynamic pulley system make?
  9. What is the advantage of incline plane exercise?
  10. What is multi-plane exercise and why is it important?
  11. What is full range of motion (ROM) and why is it important
  12. What does it mean to recruit the core in virtually every exercise?
  13. What is proprioceptive training?
  14. Why exercise, and especially, why build strength?
  15. What is the health advantage of building cardio endurance?
  16. What is the advantage of building muscular endurance?
  17. Why is flexibility important?
  18. How does resistance training change body composition?
  19. What is resistance exercise?
  20. What is an exercise program?
  21. What is a resistance exercise session?
  22. What is an exercise set?
  23. What is a repetition or ‘rep’?

 

Q. What is functional exercise?
A. Functional exercise trains the body for real life activities in real life positions. Functional exercise prepares you for the day-to-day challenges of living an active life and it lays a foundation for sport specific training.
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Q. What is a major difference between functional exercise and weight training on single station machines?
A. Weight training on single station machines isolates muscle groups and involves an artificial range of joint motion. Functional exercise recruits multiple muscle groups working through a range of motion that mimics or replicates the normal motions of the body.  Single station machines are useful for strengthening a single muscle group at a time, but are not as effective at preparing the muscles for performance. Functional exercises not only strengthen single muscle groups, but also train multiple muscle groups to improve performance, all in the same exercise.
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Q. Why are calibrated levels of resistance important?
A. Calibrated levels of resistance are necessary to gauge effort and to track progress.  Accurate calibration can be reproduced. Accurate means they are true to national and international standards of weights and measures. Athletes who are training for competition want and need to know for certain the amount of resistance in use during exercise. Calibrated resistance is repeatable, on the same machine from one use to the next use, and from one like machine to another. This lets you judge your progress with precision.  Resistance on each Total Gym model is calibrated equally from one unit to the next.
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Q. What happens when I change resistance levels?
A. You make incremental, measurable increases or decreases in load. Load simply means the amount of weight you are moving. Increasing the load requires that you generate more muscle force to move that load. This leads to strength adaptations of your muscles. Decreasing the load reduces the force needed by your muscles, to allow you to train your muscles for effort. The load on a Total Gym includes your bodyweight plus the weight of the glideboard and any added plate weights. Incremental, measurable changes in load help make your workout both effective and safe, whether you are just beginning an exercise program or you are training for sports competition.
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Q. How is the Total Gym resistance mechanism different from a spring driven mechanism?
A. With spring tension-type equipment, the load increases during the movement, with the maximum load occurring at the end range of motion. A potential disadvantage to the spring tension-type equipment is that the target muscle is experiencing sufficient resistance only at the end range of a particular motion.  With Total Gym, essentially the load (that is, the resistance) remains the same through the entire range of motion. The quality of the exercise and the load remain consistent and the muscle is required to work hard through the full motion.
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Q. How does Total Gym allow for exercise specificity?
A. Exercise specificity is a proven concept of strength and performance training. Our bodies adapt and gain according to the mode that we train.  If we train our muscles to move fast, by using fast moving exercises, our muscles will adapt and become faster. Fast training may not necessarily improve our muscle’s ability to move slowly. It is important to select and design exercises specific to your performance needs. On Total Gym, you can perform slow reps, high-speed reps, explosive motions, slow motions. You can opt for high or low resistance, multi-plane movement, limited or full range of motion. Exercise on Total Gym can imitate specific sports related movements such as swimming, throwing, golfing, skiing and more. Visit www.totalgymworkout.com.
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Q. What does it mean to train the way you want to gain?
A. If you want to be fast, train fast. If you want more agility, train for agility. If you want to achieve more explosive movement, do explosive training. A major benefit of Total Gym is that it allows for a multitude of training modes: fast, slow, limited range of motion, full range of motion, deliberate motions or explosive motions, etc. Total Gym can be used for a wide range of exercise specific programs.
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Q. What difference does a dynamic pulley system make?
A. The dynamic pulley system allows you to train in a manner similar to using dumbbell free weights, one of the most effective methods of strength and performance training, with additional advantages.  Dumbbells and pulleys allow you to move both of your arms or both of your legs together or separately, all in the same exercise. Freedom of motion, without the restriction of a fixed lever system (such as a single station machine) or barbell, allows you work arms or legs together yet independently. The advantage of a pulley system over free weights is that the pulley system maintains constant resistance through the full range of motion, whereas the free weight resistance to the working muscle changes during the range of motion. The Total Gym dynamic pulley system allows you to exercise a single arm or leg at one time, or both at the same time. You can alternate. You can hold the glideboard static and move the arms or legs through the range of motion to achieve isometric overload. The dynamic pulley system facilitates all of these.
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Q. What is the advantage of incline plane exercise?
A. The benefits of incline plane exercise are achievable while reducing the joint compression that is experienced with traditional exercise. Exercise with less joint compression is effective and may help reduce the risk of injury, since it is easy on the joints. That is not to say that the exercise is easy. On the contrary, it can be extremely challenging, which is why professional athletes incorporate a low impact exercise component in their training regimens.
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Q. What is multi-plane exercise and why is it important?
A. There are very few activities that involve movement through a single cardinal plane . Most human activity involves movement through all three planes of motion simultaneously. Total Gym allows you train in all three planes of motion simultaneously, which prepares the body for optimal human performance. Single station weight machines only allow the muscle to train through one plane of motion. Because of the importance of exercise specificity, any exercise program should include multiplane exercise as a major component of the overall program.

Cardinal Planes of Motion.
Sagittal—front to back
Frontal—side-to-side
Transverse—rotating
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Q. What is full range of motion (ROM) and why is it important
A. Full range of motion refers to taking the muscle or joint through a full excursion of its possible movement. This would include allowing a muscle to move from its shortest length to its longest length. All muscles have a position where the muscle can generate optimal force within the range of motion (ROM). Working through the full range of motion strengthens the weaker ends of the muscle, preparing them for activities of daily living (ADL). An advantage of the dynamic pulley system is that it is best designed to provide resistance through the full range of muscle and joint motion.
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Q. What does it mean to recruit the core in virtually every exercise?
A. The strength of the muscles at the center of the body, especially the muscles of the abdomen and back, is integral to overall fitness. Exercise on Total Gym recruits the muscles of the core, thanks to the dynamic instability introduced by the rolling glideboard. In simplest terms, exercising on the rolling glideboard recruits the muscles of the core in order to stabilize the trunk during most of the upper body exercises.
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Q. What is proprioceptive training?
A. Proprioceptive training is a phrase used often in physical rehabilitation. Basically, proprioception is a subconscious awareness of your body in space. Our joints and muscles have small nerves that are responsible for sending messages to the brain that allow us to know when our body is moving, how it is moving, at what speed, and in what direction. These nerves provide us with constant feedback to make our movements smooth and coordinated. Proprioceptive training promotes improved control of your body through exercise. Proprioceptive training is easily incorporated into an exercise program on Total Gym.
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Q. Why exercise, and especially, why build strength?
A. According to recent studies* including studies reported by the federal government**, resistance training can help improve muscle strength, mass and endurance at any age. The benefits of resistance training also include improved reaction time, increased work capacity and reduced risk of back problems and injury. For older adults, resistance training can improve functional abilities and reduce the risk of falls.

*McMurray, R.G., J.S. Harrell, L. Johnston, E. Sprow. Center for Health Promotion/Disease Prevention, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. “Influence of Physical Activity and Aerobic Power on Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors.” Presented at: American College of Sports Medicine, Southeast Regional Chapter, Annual Meeting, January 1998. As noted @ http://www.unc.edu/depts/ppps/fitness/fitabst.htm

*Wilmore, J.H., Stanforth, P.R., Gagnon, J., Rice, T., Mandel, S., Leon, A.S., Rao, D.C., Skinner, J.S., & Bouchard, C. (2001). “Heart rate and blood pressure changes with endurance training.” The HERITAGE Family Study.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 33, 99-122.  As noted in this article

**Physical Activity and Public Health -- A Recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine, JAMA 1995;273:402-407, Publication date: 02/01/1995. As noted @ http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000391/p0000391.asp

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Q. What is the health advantage of building cardio endurance?
A. Cardio endurance-building (aerobic) exercises improve the functions of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. A healthy heart is able to pump blood to nourish billions of body cells. Lungs are where the gases of cell metabolism are exchanged for oxygen. Elastic blood vessels that are free of obstructions allow life-giving blood to flow. A healthy level of cardio endurance reduces risk of cardiovascular diseases.
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Q. What is the advantage of building muscular endurance?
A. Muscles have only a certain amount of stored energy. Resistance training improves the efficiency of stored energy within the muscle to increase tolerance for high repetition activities such as climbing stairs, carrying groceries as well as high energy sports activities.
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Q. Why is flexibility important?
A. Research as shown that improved flexibility may reduce the risk of injury and may improve performance. Having reduced flexibility in one joint places a greater burden on other joints. Having greater flexibility allows the body to move more freely through multiple planes and increases pain- free movement.
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Q. How does resistance training change body composition?
A. Muscles burn calories which can be in the form of stored fat. Resistance training wakes up dormant muscle fibers, recruiting more of the muscle to perform work. These newly awakened muscle fibers will then burn more calories and stored fat. Once the full muscle potential has been awakened, the muscle will continue to burn calories for an extended period of time.
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Q. What is resistance exercise?
A. A resistance exercise is a particular movement under load (weight) performed repeatedly to strengthen a particular muscle or group of muscles.
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Q. What is an exercise program?
A. Your overall fitness program is made up of various exercise types, such as aerobic training, flexibility training and resistance training.
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Q. What is a resistance exercise session?
A. A session is one component of your overall program and will encompass several exercises arranged in a sequence designed to achieve a certain outcome. You might perform a session a certain number of times each week.
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Q. What is an exercise set?
A. A set is a group of successive repetitions of an exercise performed without a rest period. As an example, you might perform two sets of weighted squats with 8 repetitions (reps) each.  That would mean you perform eight squats, then rest or stretch the legs before you perform another eight squats.
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Q. What is a repetition or ‘rep’?
A. A rep is a repeat of an exercise movement. One rep equals the full exercise movement from start to finish.
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